Should I buy eggs or wait it out?

[Wishing4Wings]

I have lots of newbie questions, I am hoping some of you have had experiences you can share! My chickens are NH Reds at 19 weeks, Ameraucana's at 18 weeks, and Cream Legbars at 17. Then I have some younger chicks that are 10 and 9 weeks old. (Mostly BR's!)

Questions: The CL roosters (4) are going after ALL of the females, even the 10 and 9 week old ones. Is that normal??

The CL roosters are grabbing the girls by anything they can grab onto, wings, head, legs, etc, then they climb aboard.
Most of the time, they are bucked off and the girls run off. Is that normal?

The Ameraucana rooster seems so sweet. He has not gone after any girl that I have seen, but I have seen him feeding his hatch mate, a female. He is actually older than the CL's but started crowing about a month later than them. First I thought the first one to crow might be dominant, but all the roos crow now and only the CL's seem aggressive. Is that normal? Will they calm down soon and be more like gentlemen? I know I have too many roos, I will be culling hopefully this weekend. Might that be the issue with them? Not enough ladies to go around with all that testosterone!

My coop is not attached to my run. It is about 50 feet away. Everyone goes out around 9-10 am for the day and they return at about 8:30 is (west coast of FL-still light out). I am figuring they may start laying in the run since they don't have access to the next boxes during the day?? Do any of you have nest boxes in your runs?

Sorry for so many questions, but thanks for having so many fun answers to questions I never thought I would be asking!

Sully, I was reading on my local thread and someone just processed 2 cockerels that were the same age and size. One was a Plymouth Rock and the other a Legbar. The difference in the size of their ehm.... manly parts... was quite dramatic. Maybe your boys can't help themselves. The Legbars probably have a lot more testosterone. If you want to see, California - Northern top of page 2885.

 

[cheeka]

if you are sending eggs to the White House or the Pentagon... yes, they will xray, but they do not routinely xray parcels. it's not equipment that all hubs have... besides, it's a whole lot easier to open a suspicious parcel. (not suspicious for explosives... that would be a doh moment...) all mail is subject to search. period. the USPS is equipped with machines that "sniff" mail, and can smell 9 pieces a second. and when parcels bundles are opened, it's pretty obvious that shipped contraband is present, which is of more concern than pretty much anything else. the difference is with Live things. be it eggs or birds or bees... the marking on the parcel will determine how it's handled, and there certainly are jerks everywhere in this world... who toss parcels like basketballs... just this morning we had our post-con (big cart) of mail delivered this morning, and hanging out the bottom side was a parcel, clearly marked "fragile", yet it was not handled properly, and it had about 500 lbs of mail on top of it!. our truck driver is not allowed to touch it. so he brought it to the PM attention immediately, she photographed it. then we went about unloading... but if it's damaged, she has proof that it was the mail handlers at the plant. there are a bunch of new people working down there and they are the pitts! slow and sloppy... so frustrating.

my question to that guy would be "how do you know they were irradiated?" did the PO put a sticker on it saying so? just because he didn't get any to hatch does not mean radiation... it could have been the chuckleheads in Albany, playing basketball with it... (no, they don't try to bounce them, they take the parcels and toss them into a parcel hamper like shooting hoops)

10 Eggs and a very long day. only about an hour of free range before the big dark clouds rolled in. Peachy had the chicks up and out, even the little Silkie! when I came back with the camera, she made her get back underneath

 

[okallthis4eggs]

if you are sending eggs to the White House or the Pentagon... yes, they will xray, but they do not routinely xray parcels. it's not equipment that all hubs have... besides, it's a whole lot easier to open a suspicious parcel. (not suspicious for explosives... that would be a doh moment...) all mail is subject to search. period. the USPS is equipped with machines that "sniff" mail, and can smell 9 pieces a second. and when parcels bundles are opened, it's pretty obvious that shipped contraband is present, which is of more concern than pretty much anything else. the difference is with Live things. be it eggs or birds or bees... the marking on the parcel will determine how it's handled, and there certainly are jerks everywhere in this world... who toss parcels like basketballs... just this morning we had our post-con (big cart) of mail delivered this morning, and hanging out the bottom side was a parcel, clearly marked "fragile", yet it was not handled properly, and it had about 500 lbs of mail on top of it!. our truck driver is not allowed to touch it. so he brought it to the PM attention immediately, she photographed it. then we went about unloading... but if it's damaged, she has proof that it was the mail handlers at the plant. there are a bunch of new people working down there and they are the pitts! slow and sloppy... so frustrating.

my question to that guy would be "how do you know they were irradiated?" did the PO put a sticker on it saying so? just because he didn't get any to hatch does not mean radiation... it could have been the chuckleheads in Albany, playing basketball with it... (no, they don't try to bounce them, they take the parcels and toss them into a parcel hamper like shooting hoops)

10 Eggs and a very long day. only about an hour of free range before the big dark clouds rolled in. Peachy had the chicks up and out, even the little Silkie! when I came back with the camera, she made her get back underneath

Thanks I was just curious. He probably did something wrong and the eggs didn't hatch so he had to blame somebody.

 

[cheeka]

it happens... might not have been anything he did. the round of eggs I gave to Violet didn't hatch, not even the last 2 I gave to Profession Peach. and the second round, only 1 hatched. shipped eggs... big risk for low to no hatch rate. just how it is I guess...

 

[okallthis4eggs]

My eggs have shipped. Priority mail. I am guessing Thursday. Now I am wondering how many to give the little BR. 12 eggs might be a bit much for her to cover

 

[okallthis4eggs]

My eggs have shipped. Priority mail. I am guessing Thursday. Now I am wondering how many to give the little BR. 12 eggs might be a bit much for her to cover

Wonder if Roger would volunteer again to help out....for pie ?

 

[okallthis4eggs]

it happens... might not have been anything he did. the round of eggs I gave to Violet didn't hatch, not even the last 2 I gave to Profession Peach. and the second round, only 1 hatched. shipped eggs... big risk for low to no hatch rate. just how it is I guess...

Sounds like I did pretty good......well...not me...the broody hens...... to get four chicks to hatch out of 14. And two or three died while trying to break out of the shell. But each egg was bubble wrapped and packed in shredded paper and inside two different boxes. Took forever to get them all out of the packing

 

[cheeka]

OK, I was going to say that you did well... but I couldn't remember how many eggs you started out with... 12,14,15.... I just couldn't remember, but even still, 4 is good. I had 8 for both shipped rounds... so I'm like 1 for 16.

I would take a wait and see approach with asking Her to hatch again... see how many eggs Little Broody can handle... 8 or 9 I bet... you could always offer half of them to Big Broody if she has finished teaching "all things chicken" to her now... Big Babies...

Tomorrow is a big day here, for the chickens... lots of switching around. Peachy and her chicks are moving into the smallest (newest) pen that the banty boys have been living in. they will in turn, move into Peachy's former pen. it's larger... better for the boys. Peachy's now 12 weeks old pullets have to move into the dome. it's time. they will not be happy. they haven't even stepped foot inside. ever. not even out of curiosity while free ranging. they do not mix with the rest of the flock. I hope they can cope. big babies.

the kitchen floor has been torn up, 3 layers of linoleum! and some weird stuff in this little 4-way space I have that lifted that floor up several inches. so it was a semi-step up from the kitchen into this 4-way... to the left is a workroom, then the garage. to the right is the bathroom. straight ahead is the dining room. the carpet was torn out of the dining room weeks ago - NOW... with all the crap gone, it's a smooth floor (ugly sub floor) all the way through the lower level! there are no jams at the doorways... no lips to trip over... if my Mom comes to visit, with her artificial knees... she'll have an easy time because it's all super smooth and fluid - the hardwood will look so awesome!

10 Eggs today! I will never forget to appreciate double digits! thank you my feathered lovelies!

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Well, with all the talk of mites and molting, guess what... the Serama cockerel has mites.

We actually saw the mites crawling around on the mini egg in the mini coop, then saw them crawling on the door frame and on Donut. Coffee did not seem to have any on her, which is hard to believe. Had to go out and get some poultry dust and some safer, more natural spray stuff for around the coop. So far, no signs on the big girls, but I will be taking extra precautions and give their roosts and nest boxes a good clean out, spray, and more DE.

We have been having unusually cool weather, with drippy fog most mornings until noon. Supposedly the mites are more active in cool weather, but with all the quail and other wild birds running around in the yard, it's really only a matter of time around here. Mites are very common in N.Calif.

Coffee takes a good dust bath every day, while her beau stands guard and picks little rocks and bits of dirt off her back. Donut has never taken a dust bath, so no wonder the mites got to him first. I think we caught it fairly early, so hoping quick action will prevent them spreading. These two have been evicted from the mini coop and will spend the night in large cat carrier in the garage until the coop is thoroughly cleaned and dried out.

​

The big girls are also fiends for dust baths. You have to watch your step out in their yard or you can twist an ankle in the holes they have made all over. So far the 4 new Serama pullets have shown no signs of bathing behavior. I saved up some ashes from the wood stove and will try tempting them with a pan full of ashes.

For those of you with roosters, do any of them dust bathe?

5

eggs today and probably a zillion mite eggs

. Poppy, my Ameraucana, is broody for the 3rd time this summer. We checked a Serama egg yesterday and found that it was fertile, so considering letting Poppy hatch out some Serama eggs. I know bantams hatch out large eggs, but has anyone heard of a (smallish) large chicken (4 lbs) hatch out bantams?

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

shipped eggs are really hard to judge. I have done a LOT this year. A lot of it is the packing and distance, I have one seller that's fantastic, and get around 80% from him. But he is In Indiana... Have had 3 shipments that were -0- s. goose eggs and Amerucanas. They were very poorly packed, loose and crushed, air cells detached. My guinea egg shipment, one side of the box was mashed and not a single egg broken! I still got 70% on that hatch too. (My indiana guy) If possible I go get them, but if they are far away i really look at the feedback. I wish more people would follow up too. I try to post follow up feedback on everything I buy, so the next buyer knows. (ebay eggs)
I just checked my Bourbon red eggs, so far 8 of 12 are fertile! 2 are ?'s may be blood rings. Soooo now its all on me

Praying that we don't have another power outage, My single BR poult is an absolute doll. Snoodles is 6 weeks old now, and wants to ride on my shoulder.
Thats gotta stop... toms get huge! It snuggles and chatters and will fall asleep on your lap

My royal palms are sweet too, but not near as friendly as the BR.
My peachicks are adapting well, and are finally trusting us. My oldest DD is back from vacation so am hoping she will help take pics tomorrow.
Sophie the baby goat is doing great, and so are the 8 goslings. No quail eggs yet... should be any time.
Not one single egg today

weird... whats up with that? All nestboxes were empty, even checked before dark.